 |
|
We
value your opinions. Please fill out the form below for comments and suggestions. |
||
May 10, 2007
This statement was distributed during the activity last April 22 at Max's
Scout Tuazon in Quezon City.
Prosecute Killings-
Slain Journalists' Families
Quezon City, 22 April 2007
Widows and children of slain journalists called today on government authorities
to act with dispatch in the investigation and prosecution of all cases
of journalist slayings in the Philippines. They also called on government
to move decisively to stop further killings.
“We need the government to prove that killers of journalists will
be punished, that they will not be allowed to go scot-free,” said
Elvie Sanchez, widow of Romeo Sanchez, broadcaster from DZNL Ilocos Norte,
who was assassinated in Baguio City in 2005.
“We don’t want anymore journalists killed,” said Norma
Alave, the 60-year-old mother of Maricel Alave Vigo, of DXND Kidapawan
City, who was killed on June 19, 2006 together with her husband, George
Vigo, also a journalist connected with Union of Catholic Asian News (UCAN).
Sanchez and Alave were among the 40 family members of slain journalists
who just ended a three-day summer workshop of sharing, healing, and learning.
The Saranggola Summer workshop was held from April 20-21,2007, at the
Subic Bay Freeport, and consisted of field trips and psychosocial sessions.
“We want to be able to tell the world that our parents did not die
in vain,” said Princess Palo, the 19-year-old daughter of Leo Palo
DXRA / Davao City who was killed in 1987.
As many as 88 journalists have been killed since 1986, the year formal
democracy was restored in the Philippines. The number is now close to
double the number of journalists killed in 14 years of martial law.
The Saranggola Summer workshop was organized jointly by the National Union
of Journalists of the Philippines, the Bevil Mabey Study Foundation and
the Kasangga sa Kaunlaran Inc. for the beneficiaries of their scholarship
program. ###